New York City to ban horse-drawn carriages in 2028, City Council speaker says

After years of political back-and-forth and several violent mishaps in Central Park, including one where a tourist lost their life in the summer, New York City is set to ban horse-drawn carriages in less than two years, City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Tuesday.

The City Council will vote on the long-gestating bill on Oct. 22, which would prohibit the issuance of new licenses used in the operation of horse-drawn cabs and phase out the carriages by June 1, 2028, she said.

The bill gained traction in the summer after Romanch Mahajan, an 18-year-old Indian tourist, was killed after a horse got out of control with the carriage and the victim's family still inside. The carriage clipped the wheel of another carriage and toppled, according to investigators.

The bill, dubbed Romanch's Law, already has 29 sponsors, more than half of the City Council.

"Horse-drawn carriages have long been part of New York City's history, but in an increasingly busy Central Park, this tradition has become a growing public safety liability. Next week, the Council will take decisive action by voting on Romanch's Law to protect New Yorkers, visitors, and the horses themselves," Menin said in a statement.

Politico NY first reported the Council Speaker's announcement.

Under the bill, the horses would be prohibited from being sold to slaughterhouses. The bill also sets up a "workforce transition program" for the horse-drawn carriage drivers, who are unionized, that includes job placement, training, career counseling and financial compensation, according to the bill language.

In the summer, Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters that he supported "the spirit of the bill," but stressed that he wanted it to include strong worker protections.

Sneha Choudhary, a spokeswoman for the mayor, told ABC News in a statement, "We have been working closely with the City Council, union partners, carriage drivers, animal welfare advocates, and community leaders to deliver a just transition that protects workers while ending horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once and for all."

A source with knowledge of the city's plan to enforce the bill told ABC News that the mayor's office has been working on a detailed transition plan for the carriage workers.

At the time of Mahajan's death, eight other incidents took place in Central Park over the span of 13 months involving horse-drawn carriages, including some where horses collapsed with drivers and passengers onboard, according to the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the greenspace.

For years, the conservancy, animal advocates and some elected officials, including mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, pushed to end the carriage rides in the park; however, there was not enough support in the City Council.

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Betsy Smith, the president and CEO of Central Park Conservancy, applauded the City Council for moving forward.

"For the Central Park Conservancy, this has always been a matter of public safety. We hope carriages can be phased out efficiently and humanely so that no one else ever suffers the fate of Romanch Mahajan," she said in a statement Tuesday.

The Transport Workers Union, which represents the horse-drawn carriage drivers, has pushed back against calls to ban the horses and rides, contending that their members would lose out on jobs and that other safety measures and training could prevent future incidents.

TWU President John Samuelsen expressed his opposition to the bill in a statement Tuesday, claiming it "has no meaningful economic relief for workers." Samuelsen called the measures, such as job fairs and job counseling, "weak."

"Council Speaker Menin used the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis," he said in his statement. "This is disgraceful political opportunism, and Zohran should not simply go along with it, particularly when immigrant families' livelihoods are being destroyed. This entire situation is reprehensible."

The union has said in the past it would consider legal action if a ban were ever put in place.